Paint It Black comes to FilmScene showing life after a loss and how different people cope with that loss.
By Irene Enlow
Paint It Black, which is showing at FilmScene, forces us to face the messy, grittiness of grief when two women from very separate walks of life find themselves thrown together after the death of a loved one. Highly stylized, yet equally emotionally raw, the film marks the directorial début of Amber Tamblyn, who adapted the movie from Janet Fitch’s 2006 novel of the same name. (The author acknowledges and endorses the new direction Tamblyn took her story in).
Paint It Black follows Josie (Alia Shawkat) as she grapples with the suicide of her boyfriend, Michael (Rhys Wakefield). Even as Josie is left reeling, Michael’s mother, Meredith (Janet McTeer), a wealthy concert pianist, blames Josie for Michael’s death. The women clash as they attempt to move on from the death that has rocked their world.
Experimental to say the least, the film is rarely lucid and often downright hallucinatory, ducking in and out of linearity and flirting with the sentimental, the horrifying, and the fantastical.
The film is catalyzed by a death, but it hardly focuses on the mechanics or motivations behind it, rather concentrating on life in the wake of loss. Grief has a long history of exploration in artistic media, but Paint It Black reminds us that no one experiences emotion, especially strong, destructive emotion, in a similar way.
Even in the midst of their personal tempests, Josie and Meredith struggle to connect or commiserate, instead only worrying at each other in a constant battle to deepen the other’s wounds. They fail far more at understanding the emotional turmoil that drove Michael to suicide, especially when their understanding of the dead man are so divergent.
Paint It Black, is a celebration of emotion that is difficult to understand, much less control. The film explores various modes of grief — all imperfect, all pitiful and explosive, and all ultimately valid.
Perhaps most powerfully, catharsis, which we have become conditioned to expect, isn’t easily achieved in a reconciliation between Josie and Meredith (alas, however, in the end, Tamblyn’s chosen brand of catharsis and her very acknowledgment of the need for it feels a little trite). The two women find more reasons to fight than to find commonalities in the wake of Michael’s death. Their feuding, thrashing, physicality lingers, a silent, frustrating reminder of the loss and emptiness they are both trying to come to terms with.
Not everyone has lost a lover or a son, but unchecked feelings that we don’t quite feel equipped to handle are something most people can relate to, and it’s good to see a realistic take on unbridled emotion.
Lauren Scott, who visited FilmScene to see Paint it Black, said, “I loved it. It was unique.” Another audience member, Ian Raymond concurred: “It was really something special. I’m excited to see what Amber Tamblyn will do next.”
Paint It Black is a fierce experimental exploration of human emotion and should not be missed.
